Search Results for 'William Evans'

William Evans (1798-1877) was the drawing master of Eton College in England, an accomplished artist who exhibited widely in London, Dublin and Paris. He made a number of visits to the west of Ireland in 1835 and 1838 where he produced many finished watercolours and studies, mostly of Counties Galway and Mayo. His subject matter varied from panoramic landscapes to market and street scenes, and what might be called peasant structures and peasant portraits. He painted a lot in Conamara, especially in the vicinity of Renvyle and was among the very first artists to show off this wild remote area in his pictures.

William Evans was a distinguished painter in the 19th century who did a very unusual and adventurous thing for an English artist at the time — he travelled widely in Connemara and west Mayo. We can only speculate what attracted him to this wild, rugged, and remote terrain but he liked the parts of the country least visited, and said that, “Ireland failed to attract the pencils of the recording brethren of the easel and lay like a virgin soil untouched by the plough.” He produced many studies and finished watercolours, a mixture of landscapes, streetscapes, and market scenes, and what might be called peasant structures and peasant portraits.

John F Deane, the Achill-born author and founder of Poetry Ireland, will be the special guest at the outdoor launch of ACHILL PAINTERS: An Island History, at 3pm on Saturday, August 1 in Dooagh, Achill.